Chennaiites to cook for Zero Hunger Hour tomorrow

Balaji Narayanaswamy, Co-Founder of No Food Waste, an NGO, said the idea is to encourage people to reduce the amount of food that goes waste. “Usually, we tell our volunteers to give out extra food to the needy. But for the Zero Hunger Hour, we have asked people across the city to cook extra and share with the poor and hungry people in their locality. By doing this, they can identify those who are suffering from hunger and the next time they have excess food, they will know who they can donate it to,” said Balaji, adding that last year, 5,000 people across 19 cities donated food for the hungry. “This year, we have almost 10,000 people volunteering,” he added. 

Sneha Mohandoss, Founder of Food Bank India, said that around 50 volunteers will be cooking to feed close to 2,000 people across the city on October 16. “There is a perception that only stale food can be donated. We want to change that and stress that every human being has the right to a nutritious meal. Our volunteers spread across the city will be cooking extra food and this will be distributed to the needy during lunch time. We want to create awareness on the need to donate good food—especially when there is a wedding or a party where large amounts of food go into the bins,” said Sneha, whose Food Bank has volunteers feeding the hungry across 18 localities in the city.